We’ve had lots of progress over the past month. Here are a few highlights of our progress.
Demographic Study
As a key part of the Feasibility, we hired a demographer (CropperGIS) to build a population model to forecast what our school population will be over the coming 10 years. The complete report can by found here. The most important findings are as follows.
The resident total fertility rate for Thomaston Public Schools over the life of the forecasts is below the replacement level. (1.18 vs. the replacement level of 2.1). This is a key finding that support our declining population of school aged children.
Most in-migration to the district will occur in the 0-4- and 22-39-year-old age groups.
The local 18-22-year-old population continues to leave the district, moving out to college. Another migration outflow is in the 75+ age groups, as empty-nester housing turnover continues to be a driver of migration flow.
The primary factor causing the district’s enrollment to decrease over the next 10 years is the low fertility not sufficiently supplanted by in-migration.
Changes in year-to-year enrollment over the next ten years will primarily be due to varying size of cohorts entering, moving through, and leaving the school system.
The median age of the district’s population will increase from 45.1 in 2020 to 45.7 in 2035.
The rate, magnitude, and price of existing homes will continue to be the major factor affecting the amount of population and enrollment change.
Total district enrollment is forecasted to decrease by 88 students, or -10.8%, between 2024-25 and 2029-30. Total enrollment is forecasted to then decrease by 52 students further, or -7.2%, from 2029-30 to 2034-35.
A more comprehensive synopsis of the analysis completed my DRA (our vendor guiding the overall study) can be found here.
Town Surveys
The project team created four surveys to gather feedback on the suitability of the current school infrastructure. The surveys were anonymous; answers cannot be traced back to the respondent. The survey was hosted by a third-party, not be the Town or Thomaston Public Schools. There was one survey for each type of stakeholder. They are as follows.
Teacher & Staff
Parent & Guardian
Students
Residents & Business
A comprehensive synopsis of the analysis completed my DRA is as follows.
Online surveys were conducted concurrently and engaged four different constituent groups. Surveys were geared towards Parents & Guardians, Teachers & Staff, Residents & Businesses, and Students in grades 3 through 12. Surveys were anonymous and restricted to one answer per URL. The open period for participating was September 12 to October 20, 2025; students could respond through October 22nd.
Response rates were very good, with 72 from teachers & staff, 129 from residents & businesses, 65 from parents & guardians, and 143 from students.
The respondents to the survey for parents showed 71% of the respondents have lived in Town for 11 or more years, with 35% having been in Town for more than 20 years.
For residents the result was 77% stating they have lived in Town for 11 or more years, with fully 70% having been in Town for more than 20 years.
This level of longevity indicates that responses will be based on knowledge and experience of the town over a considerable period of time.
Parents & Guardians reported having children in all grades except the transitional program. Distribution amongst grades ranged from 3% in Grade 3 to 10% in Grade 11.
Given the range of grades in Thomaston High School it is not surprising to see that 51% of parents and guardians report their student(s) attends the high school. Blackrock Elementary had 24% while Thomaston Center School at 22%, 1% responded as ‘Out of District’.
This distribution across the entire grade range provides insight into all aspects of the District’s facilities and programs.
Those attending out of District schools responded with Waterbury Arts Magnet (2), Lakeview High School (1), District 15 (2), and Oliver Wolcott Technical High School (2).
The Waterbury Arts, Wolcott Technical High School, and Lakeview High School each offer focused curriculums not offered in Thomaston as well as facilities oriented strongly toward teaching that particular subject matter.
Familiarity with the Thomaston Public Schools was 8.25 out of 10 for residents/businesses. This level of familiarity helps to bolster the validity of the other responses within the surveys.
Familiarity with the District’s facilities ranged from 7.4 to 8.17 out of 10 for parents/guardians and residents/businesses, respectively.
That said, the residents/businesses respondents feel the Thomaston Public School System ranks only at 5.08 out of 10 as an attraction for families or businesses to move into town. This is actually slightly higher than the response to how the District is perceived by residents and non-residents, which totaled 4.82 out of 10; this same question returned a 5.58 out of 10 when answered by parents/guardians.
The overall conclusion derived from the results is that the majority of respondents feel they know the buildings and grounds well and that the facilities do not reflect well on the Town or District.
Most teachers responded that the spaces in which they work support their efforts.
Students responded with less support for the condition of the facilities.
Looking to the future the direction should be to anticipate a shift in teaching modalities to one more computer based, to a curriculum that embraces evolving work paradigms, and to enhance the perception of the facilities and programs to those who live in town as well as prospective residents.
Community Workshop
We held our first community workshop on October 23rd. We had a great turnout. We greatly appreciate everyone that attended and took part in our workshop sessions. We have recap of the workshop herealong with the following key areas of interest.
REDUCE – Members of the three breakout sessions identified this as an area for additional discussion. (Noted in all three breakout sessions).
SHARE – Meeting participants asked for further exploration of shared services as a means to develop a more efficient District. (Noted in 2 of 3 breakout sessions).
REGIONALIZE – Members of the three breakout sessions identified regionalization as something that may have a great impact on the District. Some clarified that this impact may be both highly positive, as well as highly negative. (Noted in all three breakout sessions).
These areas of interest will be focused on as the team continues the study effort and prepares for Community Meeting 2 | Options and Alternatives.
During the workshop we review the Facilities Assessment & Master Plan that was completed in July of 2024. This report details all of the repairs that are required over the coming 20 years. This report is what prompted the need for the Feasibility Study. Several of the workshop attendees asked to review the Facilities Assessment & Master Plan. This document can be found at the link below.
